UNMIK 1st Anniversary Backgrounder - Returnees - 5 June 2000

During the past 12 years, hundreds of thousands of Kosovo residents, mainly Albanians, left the Balkans to find work and refuge in Western Europe and other countries. Some 850,000 left Kosovo during the conflict of 1999. Following the end of the air war in June 1999, most of the latter returned; and the countries which had hosted Kosovo residents for short and long terms wanted the rest of their Kosovar guests to follow suit.

Germany said it would send back 160,000 Kosovo residents this year, Switzerland, about 25,000. Several other countries including Australia and the United States also made plans to send Kosovo expatriates home.

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the air war, some 211,000 mostly Serbs, also fled Kosovo, fearing or experiencing revenge attacks. They were subsequently registered as internally displaced persons in Serbia and Montenegro. Roma people too have been waiting in neighbouring countries such as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for the climate for return to improve. There are also many internally displaced people within Kosovo, notably the more than 250 Kosovo Albanians who were forced to flee northern Mitrovica early this year. Most were returned by UNMIK and KFOR to three apartment buildings on the north side of the Ibar River.

Altogether, the number of Kosovo residents outside Kosovo, who would like to or will be compelled to return, amounts to an estimated 20 percent of the current Kosovo population.

The prospect of this population returning during the year 2000 prompted much concern within UNMIK. While the end of the air war and the arrival of UNMIK and KFOR in June 1999 meant the end of discriminatory policies affecting Kosovo Albanians, much needed to be done to be able to accommodate the existing population, let alone additional large numbers, many of whom had lost their ties to the area. At the urging of UNMIK, Germany and Switzerland agreed to wait out the winter of 1999-2000 before convincing the majority of Kosovo Albanians to go home. Memoranda of Understanding were signed laying out guidelines on phased, orderly, humane and as much as possible voluntary programs of return.

Thus, throughout the year, many Kosovo Albanians have returned voluntarily from various countries, mostly with the assistance of the International Organization of Migration (IOM). Nearly 12,000 came in May 2000 alone, and more than 120,000 since June 1999. Beginning in April, however, others were compelled to leave. By 1 June, those forced to return, mostly from Germany and Switzerland. totalled some 1,600. In response, SRSG Kouchner issued an open letter on 13 April to all host countries, reiterating the need to observe the human rights of the returnees, to minimize the use of force, and to give UNMIK notice and time to allow adequate preparation to take place in Kosovo. He was particularly concerned that minorities should not return at this time, that nuclear families be kept intact and that children be allowed to complete their school year. He also asked host countries to be involved on the ground in Kosovo in receiving returnees.

Dr. Kouchner continued to press these issues in bilateral contacts with host countries, which led to a joint effort with UNMIK and humanitarian agencies in developing and implementing reintegration packages. In Geneva on 31 May, Dr. Kouchner again appealed to both countries to slow the rate of forced repatriation. UNMIK delivered to host countries a Policy Paper on the Repatriation of Kosovo Albanians which detailed the state of affairs of each sector in Kosovo and its capacity to absorb returnees.

In response, Switzerland and Germany opened liaison offices in Pristina to assist returns. The Swiss government has begun housing assistance to communities in which returnees are expected. Switzerland is also giving cash to Kosovo Centres for Social Work which are charged with humanitarian assistance, and it has agreed to fund the management of temporary community shelters. In addition, UNMIK is seeking grants of DM 3 million for community shelters; DM 2 million to create a fund for emergency subsistence payments to destitute returnees; and a further DM 90,000 for a job-training programme. UNMIK has also proposed a rural resettlement programme to assist would-be or returning farmers. And it has proposed a comprehensive assessment of the needs of returning schoolchildren and university age returnees, as well as of the capacity of Kosovo's education system to include them and to serve children with particular needs, for example, when faced with a curriculum and language now unfamiliar to them. These projects will target both returnees and their communities in order to guarantee full and fair reintegration. Finally UNMIK will this year assess the impact on the communities that have received the preponderance of returnees.

Regarding Kosovo Serbs, SRSG Kouchner set up a Joint Committee on Returns with the KFOR Commander, Bishop Artemije, and the heads of UNHCR and OSCE as the only official body through which all proposals for returns of Serbs are to be channelled. This is to ensure that returns are taking place in an orderly , safe and sustainable manner. A working group has fielded several assessment missions to different locations to prepare for 'go-and-see' visits by prospective returnees. The next step will be targeting of specific sites best suited for the first significant sanctioned returns.

One of the earlier conditions of the Serb National Council of Gracanica for its full participation in the Joint Interim Administrative Structure (JCR) had been that progress be made on the return of Serbs by the end of June. Meanwhile, Mitrovica Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic tabled his own proposal to return Serbs to several communities in northwest Kosovo, refusing invitations so far to join the Joint Committee on Returns. While JCR-sponsored return projects are about to be implemented in a few targeted villages, the recent violence targeting Serbs in Kosovo may have impeded both the returns of Serbs and the enthusiasm of the Serbs for participation in the JIAS.